Monday, January 24, 2011

More Sherman Ave streetscape upgrades underway

The Sherman Avenue streetscape improvements, which include pedestrian and traffic safety improvements, improved sidewalks, more street trees and better street lighting, are moving along. From the Columbia Heights Yahoo listserve:

The barriers in the middle of Sherman Avenue from Fairmont Street to Barry Place are Step 1 in Phase 1 of the Maintenance of Traffic plan. Essentially, the contractor is preparing for the next activities to begin, which for the next two weeks will be the continued utility activities for water and electrical. There may be temporary lane closures while the contractor is making the utility connections at the man-holes. The barriers are there to help keep both the construction workers and the traveling public safe during this phase.

DDOT will be distributing quarterly newsletters about the project to people who live along Sherman Avenue.

3 comments:

Three cheers for sharrows. Now we have to explain to everyone what sharrows are.

I use the mnemonic "shitty arrows." Sharrows are street markings that just remind motorists that bicycles are using the lane, but that DDOT didn't think the space was worthy of creating an actual bike lane (not enough space or not enough bike ridership). So you can drive over the sharrows, but look out for bikes and pass them courteously.

The problem with sharrows, of course, is that their very existence implies that without them bikes are not welcome on paved roads.

Not that anyone cares but these streetscape upgrades to Sherman ARE DESTROYING MY COMMUTE. You can't remove a lane of traffic and then tie up the other one with cones and sharrows and not expect serious consequences during rush hour.